Bill Lancaster: The Final Verdict: The Life and Death of an Aviation Pioneer by Ralph Barker

Author:Ralph Barker [Barker, Ralph]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Autobiography, Aviation, Biography, Historical, History, Military, Non-Fiction, Pioneers, World War I
ISBN: 9781473855830
Google: deBnCwAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1473855837
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2015-11-30T00:00:00+00:00

Events were to show that the findings of the medical commission fell short of being conclusive and that the issue was not so clear-cut as Lancaster apparently believed or perhaps had been led to believe by his counsel. No doubt they argued that it might be fatal to his morale not to be reassuring on this point. Again, evidence Carson was amassing on the temperament of Haden Clarke would be challenged by the prosecution. But while the letter may well have been written with an eye to posterity, it was hardly intended to be used to influence anyone at the trial, otherwise the reference to the insincerity and crudeness of some Americans would surely have been omitted. The letter lapses at times into sentimentality, but in substance it is not a document that would have given much encouragement to the prosecution. Three weeks later a letter written to his wife shows only a small deterioration in his mental state after nearly twelve weeks in gaol. Allowing for a natural revulsion from the high-pressure publicity methods to which Englishmen were not then accustomed, it strikes a note of calm confidence.

MIAMI GAOL

July 14th, 1932

Your letter of July 4th reached me this afternoon. It is one of the few things that are worth while that have come to me for such an age.

When Haden Clarke shot himself he placed me in a ghastly position, which I made even worse by trying to get him to sign notes which I had typed—self-preservation instincts caused me to do this. I did no wrong in the matter.

Trial is now set for August 2nd. The authorities have been unfair, but NOT as unfair as have the Miami newspapers. It is going to be an ordeal, but I am fortified by the knowledge that I am innocent of the charge.

Unless there is unfairness, which is not unlikely, the courts here are rotten, I shall be cleared in an honourable way. James Carson, my chief lawyer, is a learned man, a “gentleman”.

I have been terribly handicapped by lack of money. In America “justice” is a matter of dollars and cents. Have been 3 months in gaol the whole time in a cell 10 feet by 8 feet. They are setting the court in the typical American manner (for a gloating public), wired so that everything can immediately be given out. The various newspaper syndicates sending special representatives etc. etc.

You can depend on my keeping the chin up! No white feathers around. Just annoyance. I suffer greatly at the thought of such harm as may be done to you and the babes through all this.

Will write again before the trial. Appreciated photos sent by Pat. Kiss the babes for me.

B

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